The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity • Hacker News Board

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#311

Post by thesagan » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 12:24 PM UTC

shostack wrote: post #224

thesagan wrote: post #23

I lost mine about six months ago and I haven't replaced it. First couple months I noticed I got VERY irritable when I got a momentary flash of boredom, especially waiting in line in stores, etc. Figured that might've been a budding mental issue, and decided to work on my patience and expectation-setting as a result. This has been part of a larger life exercise in practicing general moment-to-moment mindfullness, and…

I'd love to stop using my phone so much, but I can't break the habit. Short of losing it, any tips for dealing with the stress when it flares up from not having the ability to fill those gaps with refreshes of Reddit, news sites or playing games?

Mindfulness, and studying the little details of your immediate surroundings. Meditation on-the-spot.

When I realized how dependent I became on the phone for my well-being I decided to go through a painful-ish withdrawal to get back my own sense of self. Definitely wasn't comfortable, which prompted me to continue the practice!

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#312

Post by anbende » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 12:25 PM UTC

notadoc wrote: post #85

lathiat wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy AirPods. Honestly.

I considered it but I'm not a big fan of headphones, I usually listen to music at home or in a car. One of the most annoying situations was when I had a great podcast I wanted to share with someone on a long drive, pulled out the iPhone 7 to plug into their car stereo and.... new-ish car.... but AUX only.... no dongle..... never mind! I believe Apple removed the headphone jack 5 or 10 years too early. Bluetooth is no…

Bluetooth radio transmitter for the car is like $100 (for a good one). Quality is only slightly worse than radio (for a good one).

Problem solved. Enjoy

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#313

Post by kdeldycke » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 12:28 PM UTC

Iv wrote: post #148

wdewind wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But ... few people complain about how books corrupt our memory. Socrates absolutely did. > for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth,…

I was in high school when I first read this opinion (I did not remember it was Socrates though). Also, I learned that Gaul, pre-roman France (where I lived), had a society where the priests/judges, the druids, were forbidden to write down their knowledge. It fascinated me. The idea that books, that were more or less revered depositories of knowledge, could have been seen as anti-intellectual at one time. It pushed me…

Writing is the spatialization of time. Speaking is the temporalization of space.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#314

Post by tim333 » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 12:37 PM UTC

notadoc wrote: post #63

clw8 wrote: post #29

Funny timing, I almost got hit yesterday (at a speed that could have been fatal) by a driver who most likely was either checking notifications or actively texting, while I was biking right on the UC campus. Immediately jerked my handlebar to the right and dumped myself into the grass and escaped with a huge gash above my left eye. Our self-driving overlords can't take over soon enough.

The next time you're driving around on a street or highway, look around at your fellow drivers. It is absolutely shocking the number of people who are staring down at their phones.

They recently jacked up the penalties in the UK (six points on the licence and £200 spot fine). Maybe it'll help.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#315

Post by Shivetya » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 12:37 PM UTC

notadoc wrote: post #168

scriptkiddy wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a second I thought you were implying that not listening to music is a good thing. Glad to hear that's not what you believe.

Oh no I think it's a very bad thing. My implication is that I either shouldn't have bought an iPhone 7, or maybe that Apple pulled the headphone jack a decade too early.

well they did come out with a replacement for corded earphones, just that cost is nearly ten times as great as what they replace and there is now a market for creating an lanyard so you don't lose the individual Airpods.

I have no inherent issue with the removing the headphone jack since the included earpods do use a lightning connector. Not sure if those existed at launch

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#316

Post by Shivetya » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 12:40 PM UTC

kstenerud wrote: post #204

buf wrote: post #44

I want to learn Japanese. 3 months ago I changed my phone's language to Japanese. Everything is Japanese - maps, services, apps that read from the default phone language. Oddly enough, instead of learning Japanese, I just use my phone less.

Go to Japan, get a girlfriend who doesn't speak English. Takes about 6 months after that to become fluent.

putting oneself in a position where you interact with a person whose first language is not English does tend to increase the odds you will learn a second language provided both are interested in that outcome

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#317

Post by coldpie » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 1:08 PM UTC

liberte82 wrote: post #259

icebraining wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you really the only person it can be escalated to? What happens if you're sick, or your phone breaks, or whatever?

Would go up to the senior manager, or whoever else my team can get ahold of. During vacations I have another manager cover for me. There's always options, but it's expected that I be first point of contact.

I hope you get compensated well for this. I would not put up with those conditions.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#318

Post by Phemist » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 1:23 PM UTC

I am quite skeptical of the results of this paper. The claims are very strong, but the paper was published in "Journal of the Association for Consumer Research". I would AT LEAST expect it to be published in a journal related to cognitive sciences (even low-impact cognitive science journals would be fine), this seems like a safety net journal that is not really related to any of that..

Anyway, reading through the paper, there are a few methodological issues that I believe severely weaken the claims made by the authors.

1. Even though the claims made specifically towards phones, there was no "control" item situation.

2. Participants were explicitly drawn to the item in 2 out of 3 conditions right before the task.

3. Experiment 1 does not randomize on task (OSpan and RSPM) order.

4. Item (phone) dependency tests were based on self-reporting. Why not some more objective measure like in a neutral situation, how many times does the participant take the phone out of their pockets to check it?

5. As far as I can tell, there is no control for differences in their population & their measure of phone dependency (ie, is phone dependency uncorrelated to factors like age?)

but really, the killer finding is: there is a (non-linear) interaction effect between phone dependence and phone location. In the phone on desk condition, there is a negative correlation between phone dependence and performance on the OSpan (working memory) task (which is the result the abstract talks about), but in the phone/bag AND other room condition, there is a POSITIVE correlation between phone dependence and performance on the OSpan test.

So based on these results, I can make the claim that we should use our phone MORE to increase our cognitive capacity. We should become more dependent on them. We just need to remember to put them away, out of sight, rather than leave them on the table nearby.

I would put as much trust in the claim above as the original claim by the paper's authors.

EDIT: continuous grammar improvements

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#319

Post by bitexploder » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 1:43 PM UTC

infogulch wrote: post #228

Iv wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in high school when I first read this opinion (I did not remember it was Socrates though). Also, I learned that Gaul, pre-roman France (where I lived), had a society where the priests/judges, the druids, were forbidden to write down their knowledge. It fascinated me. The idea that books, that were more or less revered depositories of knowledge, could have been seen as anti-intellectual at one time. It pushed me…

This really speaks to me. I have trouble remembering things, even important things that I know I will want to remember in the future. I forget or it gets fuzzy. Sometimes I can remember better once my memory is jogged, but I can't recall it on demand. That means that things that I should be able to associate pretty easily are never put together unless it's made painfully obvious and explicit. It's a been a point of f…

Or ADHD. What you describe is one of the symptoms in the cluster of ADHD. Attention deficit is real. A part of your brain may not be developed quite fully.

> I've had a feeling that it's because I don't let myself just think.

I feel your frustration here. The best way I can describe what prescription stimulants do for me is give me just enough space and perception of time that I can pause and think. Otherwise my mind just keeps going on cruise control with shallow cognitive load chores.

Deep in a programming bug or reversing project my mind is stimulated and dopamine is being released. In the zone my brain feels fully alive and attentive (without meds). Outside of things that deeply stimulate me it is always a challenge.

Meditation, exercise, nutrtion, and CBT all help. They chip away at the undesirable behavior. For many it is enough.

Re: The Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

#320

Post by jabv » Tue, Jun 27, 2017, 2:04 PM UTC

Iv wrote: post #148

wdewind wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But ... few people complain about how books corrupt our memory. Socrates absolutely did. > for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth,…

I was in high school when I first read this opinion (I did not remember it was Socrates though). Also, I learned that Gaul, pre-roman France (where I lived), had a society where the priests/judges, the druids, were forbidden to write down their knowledge. It fascinated me. The idea that books, that were more or less revered depositories of knowledge, could have been seen as anti-intellectual at one time. It pushed me…

I think your balance (incorporating a deeper mode of thought and appreciation of memorization without abandoning modern information processing) is unusual and extremely admirable. Thanks for sharing your experience.